destructiveness of the semi-wild cat, in which a bevy of fourteen 

 quail was reduced in numbers, until two only of the original bevy 

 were left, and this took place within a wild life refuge where all 

 shooting had been discontinued. We are now face to face with the 

 same problem that presented itself to the game preservers of Eng- 

 land fifty years ago and which still continues at the present time, 

 how to get rid of the semi-wild house cat in an effective and 

 humane manner. Until cat owners are compelled by law to license 

 their pets and properly restrain them, this animal will continue to 

 be a wild creature, without legal status and against whom the 

 righteous bird protectionist must forever wage a war of extermi- 

 nation. 



The writer wishes to quote a few lines from the book of that 

 charming English author, the late Richard Jefferies, entitled "The 

 Gamekeeper at Home," in which he sets forth the alarming de- 

 struction wrought by house cats among wild creatures in England. 

 These are taken from the third American edition published in 

 1 879. " All the cats were shot or caught in the traps set for vermin 

 by her husband (the Gamekeeper) or his assistants. The majority 

 were wild that is, had taken up their residence in the woods, 

 reverting to their natural state, and causing great havoc among 

 the game." 



"This gives an idea of the extraordinary number of cats which 

 stray abroad and get their living by poaching. They invariably 

 gravitate towards the woods. The instance in point is taken from 

 an outlying district far from a town, where the nuisance is com- 

 paratively small ; but in the preserves say from ten to twenty miles 

 round London the cats thus killed must be counted by thousands. 

 Families change their homes, the cat is driven away by the new 

 comer and takes to the field. In one little copse not more than 

 two acres in extent, and about twelve miles from Hyde Park Cor- 

 ner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks, and nearly all in one spot 

 their favorite haunt. When two or three wild or homeless ani- 

 mals take up their abode in a wood, they speedily attract half a 

 dozen hitherto tame ones; and, if they are not destroyed, it would 

 be impossible to keep either game or rabbits." 



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[64] 



